Northern Ireland’s 52-year wait for an individual gold medal at the Summer Olympics is over.
Magheralin’s Daniel Wiffen joined Lady Mary Peters and hockey stars Jimmy Kirkwood and Stephen Martin in the history books with a stunning performance inside La Defense Arena.
The Ireland swimmer stormed to victory in the 800m Freestyle Final in Paris with a time of 7.38.19, just 0.56 ahead of silver medalists American Bobby Finke. Wiffen’s time set a new Olympic record. Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri took the bronze medal after leading the race for much of the way.
Before the race, Wiffen made a writing gestured to the crowd.
After the race, he explained: “I was saying that I am going to write my name into the history books and that is exactly what I’ve done.
“I executed my plan well but it wasn’t the time I wanted. But Olympic finals aren’t about the time, it’s about getting your hand on the wall first.”
Wiffen also said the last person he heard calling out from the crowd before the race was his twin brother Nathan.
“I actually heard Nathan before I dived in. I can’t believe the only person I heard from the entire crowd was my twin brother!”
The 23 year-old is just the fourth person from Northern Ireland to win a gold medal at the Summer Games, and the first to strike gold in an individual event since Mary Peters won the Pentathlon in Munich in 1972.
Wiffen is also the first athlete raised in Northern Ireland to win an Olympic title in the green of Ireland.
The 800m Freestyle world champion qualified fastest for the final with an impressive time of 7:41.53 in Monday’s heats.
Wiffen has a realistic chance of winning a second medal this weekend. He will compete in the heats of the 1500m on Saturday morning, with the final set for 5.36pm on Sunday evening. He is also the current world champion over that distance.
The Irish swimmer will round-off his Olympic journey on Friday August 9 when he competes in the Men’s Swimming Marathon.